Ohio Sea Grant releases reprint of Lake Erie shipwrecks guide

Monday

Jul 3, 2017 at 4:00 AM

COLUMBUS Ohio Sea Grant has released an updated version of its Lake Erie Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales brochure, a guide to shipwrecks along the Lake Erie coast for divers and snorkelers. The free guide is available from Ohio Sea Grant as well as from partner organizations and coastal Ohio visitor bureaus.

The brochure features 27 shipwrecks, stretching from Toledo to Conneaut. Each entry includes GPS coordinates, information on how to access the wreck site and a brief history of the ship. Partnerships with the Marine Archaeological Survey Team (MAST) and Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE) also helped provide recommendations on how much diving experience the wrecks require, and whether mooring buoys are placed at a given wreck.

"The updated guide was developed because of a continued interest in exploring this unique aspect of Ohio and Lake Erie history," said Joe Lucente, Ohio Sea Grant Extension educator and one of the authors of the guide. Because of Lake Erie's shallow depth and often severe storms, more than 1,700 ships have sunk over the centuries and only about 300 have been found so far.

A PDF of the guide is available online at ohioseagrant.osu.edu/p/i0049. A companion website, ohioshipwrecks.org, offers video of divers exploring some of the more recently discovered wrecks.

Ohio State University's Ohio Sea Grant College Program is part of NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 33 Sea Grant programs dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. For more information, visit ohioseagrant.osu.edu.